Mail Order Bride: Westward Winds by - (book club books TXT) 📕

Maureen descended the main staircase and went through the dining room and out the double French doors that led to the garden. She walked to a bench in a secluded part of the garden and sat down. It was so hard to see her beautiful daughter this way. Prior to the attack, Maddie had been a vivacious social butterfly. She had rarely been home in the evenings because she attended so many parties and dinners. Unlike her older sister, Tessa, Maddie had willingly immersed herself in the party life. She was also very charming at the dinners that were thrown for Geoffrey’s business associates and was adept at easing tensions with her wit.

Now, however, she was reclusive, depressed, and had very little appetite. Anger and sadness were Maureen’s regular companions these days, and she had a hard time sleeping some nights. The sight of their daughter bruised, battered, and terrified as she lay in the hospital bed that night would be forever burned in Maureen’s mind.

Geoffrey had been consumed with rage and had barely been prevented from going over to the Wilson’s residence to call Theo out and kill him. Although Maureen would have liked nothing better than for Geoffrey to thrash Theo, her sense of reason had prevailed and she and the police were able to keep him from doing so. Maureen kept telling him that their family needed him at home, not in prison, and she eventually got through to him.

Charges were pressed, but though it would have gone to court, Maddie didn’t want the humiliation of testifying. The Wilson family had protected their son, as any high society family of that time would have, and there had been rumors spread around the city that Madelyn was promiscuous and had led Theo on. Maddie had flat-out refused to testify and be subjected to the kind of publicity that would surely come.

Geoffrey had fumed and cajoled and pleaded, but he couldn’t budge Maddie. He wanted that animal to suffer and be punished for hurting his little girl, and it ate at him that he couldn’t get justice for her.

Their social life had ground to a halt with the exception of smaller dinners with their close friends and a few business associates. They did their best to avoid the Wilson family, because Geoffrey wouldn’t have been able to control himself. Before accepting any invitations to parties and the like, they always made sure the Wilsons were not invited. It would seem as though many people had stopped inviting the Wilsons, a sign that they believed Theo guilty of the crime. They didn’t want him around their daughters.

Thinking of all this now, Maureen let herself cry. She allowed the tears to flow once per day, but otherwise tried to appear positive for her family. However, Claire wasn’t fooled and would often give her mother comfort with a spontaneous hug or kind words. Claire was also able to make Maddie smile by reading her the more amusing articles in the paper each morning.

Geoffrey had taken to coming home earlier in the day to be there to support his family. The tragedy had drawn them all closer, and they worked their hardest to heal their daughter and sister. They all did their best, but it wasn’t easy. Maureen feared that Maddie would never fully recover.